We could all do with earning more money, we live in times where the cost of daily existence is increasing whilst wages remain the same.
In the world of the gig economy and side hustles, there is a way that you can also get in on the action. We spend a good proportion of our lives on Instagram, but what if there was a way to monetise your favourite platform? Here we tell you how you can do this!
Affiliate Marketing
When it comes to affiliate marketing, don’t worry if you haven’t got millions of followers, what counts is the loyalty of your followers. You do need to have a good number of followers for this to work, but don’t worry if you aren’t in the hundreds of thousands. Loyalty and engagement mean more than just numbers in this case.
Brands love loyalty, so if you have people that are always engaging with your content, why not approach brands that match your values and your message? If they agree, they will pay you to market their products on their behalf. Simple right? Affiliate marketing can be a very good way to earn income through Instagram, but you want to make sure you are approaching the right brands that match your values otherwise you’ll see your engagement rate decrease.
Selling Your Flat lays
If affiliate marketing isn’t for you and you’re more down for solid content creation, why not make money off the back of that? There are companies out there that will purchase your photos from between $5 – $10 or, they will pay you a small flat rate plus 20% of any profit made from it.
Flat lays tend to be photos of landscapes or surfaces that can be turned into physical products such as phone cases, so all those photos that you have stacked up of sunsets and interesting textures? Yep! These are the ones that you can sell on and make some money from.
Find Your Nich
The thing about Instagram is that a lot of the content is replicated over and over again by other users. You want to make sure that you stand out by finding your niche and your people as it were. If you are an artist, live and breathe it. Make sure you post everything that fits into your own personal brand. Use hashtags generating apps and tools to find relevant hashtags as well as like minded people through those hashtags.
Building your own brand is a long game, don’t be under any illusion, this strategy takes time and is one that will require you to remain true to. However, the payoff for the consistency can be immense! Some of the world’s top influencers are where they are because they remained true to themselves and their brand.
So, when you are thinking about the long game of monetising your Instagram account, think about how you want the world to receive you. Once you have developed your brand and your niche, you’ll find it a lot easier to approach brands and develop sponsored content with them. Make sure you use a hashtag search engine like Task Ant (https://taskant.com/) to get niche relevant hashtags. Read Task Ant review here to know more about it.
Open an Online Store
One good way of making money from your Instagram is by opening an online store. If you don’t have the time to grow your Instagram account or find your niche, opening an online store can develop your niche for you. It is easier to market a physical product than it is a concept, so by opening a store, you can do just that.
You won’t need to spend time developing a narrative that goes with your lifestyle. Rather, you just focus on developing marketing strategies for the products that you are deciding to sell. This isn’t a quick win, this strategy will always take time, however, the payoff for it can be really beneficial, especially when you start making sales.
Wrap Up
Don’t think that is just people with hundreds of thousands of followers that can make money from Instagram. There are many ways that you can monetise your account that you may not have considered previously. If you are more of a content creator than you are an affiliate marketer, then why not look to sell your flat lays?
There is an array of businesses that are ready to take them off your hands and you can earn some good commission from it. You can also look to develop your niche and the narrative around your life. Once you have developed your own brand, you are then able to approach brands to see if they want to work with you and give you the chance to be sponsored.
